Mobile number portability

This article is about telephone number portability on mobile phones. For telephone number portability on landlines, see local number portability.

Mobile number portability (MNP) enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

General overview

MNP is implemented in different ways across the globe. The international and European standard is for a customer wishing to port his/her number to contact the new provider (Recipient) who will then arrange necessary process with the old provider (Donor). This is also known as 'Recipient-Led' porting. The United Kingdom did not implement a Recipient-Led system, where a customer wishing to port his/her number is required to contact the Donor to obtain a Porting Authorisation Code (PAC) which he/she then has to give to the Recipient. Once having received the PAC the Recipient continues the port process by contacting the Donor. This form of porting is also known as 'Donor-Led' and has been criticised by some industry analysts as being inefficient. It has also been observed that it may act as a customer deterrent as well as allowing the Donor an opportunity of 'winning-back' the customer. This might lead to distortion of competition, especially in the markets with new entrants that are yet to achieve scalability of operation.

In India, MNP is launched recently which is Donor Led. Only the terminology is changed from PAC to UPC (Unique Porting Code).

Technical details

A significant technical aspect of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is related to the routing of calls or mobile messages (SMS, MMS) to a number once it has been ported. There are various flavours of call routing implementation across the globe but the international and European best practice is via the use of a central database (CDB) of ported numbers. Network operator makes copies of CDB and queries it to find out which network to send a call to. This is also known as All Call Query (ACQ) and is highly efficient and scalable. Majority of the established and upcoming MNP systems across the world are based on this ACQ/CDB method of call routing. One of the very few countries to not use ACQ/CDB is the UK where calls to a number once it has been ported are still routed via the Donor network. This is also known as 'Indirect Routing' and is highly inefficient as it is wasteful of transmission and switching capacity. Because of its Donor dependent nature, Indirect Routing also means that if the Donor network develops a fault or goes out of business, the customers who have ported out of that network will lose incoming calls to their numbers. The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom completed its extended review of the UK MNP process on 29 November 2007 and mandated that ACQ/CDB be implemented for mobile to mobile ported calls by no later than 1 September 2009^{[dated info]},

Prior to March 2008 it took a minimum of 5 working days to port a number in the UK compared to 2 hours only in USA, as low as 20 minutes in the Republic of Ireland, 3 minutes in Australia and even a matter of seconds in New Zealand. On 17 July 2007, Ofcom released its conclusions from the review of UK MNP and mandated reduction of porting time to 2 working days with effect from 1 April 2008. On 29 November 2007, Ofcom completed its consultation on further reduction to porting time to 2 hours along with recipient led porting and mandated that near-instant (no more than 2 hours) recipient led porting be implemented by no later than 1 September 2009.

In a decentralised model of MNP, a FNR (Flexible Number Register) may be used to manage a database of ported out/ported in numbers for call routing

In India as MNP is recently launched, number porting process takes 7 days as of now. Customers are facing problems in getting portability to work as envisaged. The donor network is wary of letting customers go and find improper number of reasons to reject portability requests. The customer keeps getting calls asking them not to switch and even after refusing some of the tempting offers made, the portability does not get done timely.^{[citation needed]}

Number Lookup Services

Service providers and carriers who route messages and voice calls to MNP-enabled countries might use HLR query services to find out the correct network of a mobile phone number. A number of such services exist, which query the operator's home location register (HLR) over the SS7 signalling network in order to determine the current network of a specified mobile phone number prior to attempted routing of messaging or voice traffic.

Mobile number portability by country

Americas

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Brazil	2008.09.01	3	BRL 4	The plan started in March 2007	[1]
Canada	2007.03.14	0	free	MNP procedure takes 10–20 minutes.
Colombia	2011.07.29	5	COL 2.225 + IVA	[2]
Dominican Republic	2009.09.30	3–10	free		[3]
Ecuador	2009.10.12	4	free	ASCP handled by Systor, Telconet and JR Electric Supply
Mexico	2008.07.05	1-12	free	Service handled by Telcordia Technologies and Neoris	[4]
Peru	2010.01.01	7-9	free	The user will assume the cost of the new sim card of the new mobile company that will cost around 15 PEN
USA	2003.11.24	0	free	MNP procedure takes 2.5 hours.

Asia Pacific

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Australia	2001.09.25	1	Free	Previously prefixes 04x1, 04x2, 04x3 referred to Optus 04x4, 04x5 and 04x6 referred to Vodafone 043x, referred to Vodafone Hutchison Australia formally known as Hutchison 3G Australia. 04x7, 04x8, 04x9 and 0410x referred to Telstra	[5]
Hong Kong	1999.03.01	2	Free	Service handled by Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA). In the network, you may be charged unexpectedly for a call to a mobile that has been ported form a different network.	[6][7][8]
India	2011.01.20	7	INR 19	Customers can port between prepay and post pay options. The Talk time and other validity will be terminated during porting. The master database will be managed by a third party firm. For zone I, Syniverse has been appointed with the MNP and related issues while for zone II, it is Telcordia.	[9][10][11]
Malaysia	2008.10.15	1	Free	1 day is a minimum time necessary for porting	[12][13][14][15]
Pakistan	2007.03.23	4		Customers can port between prepay and post pay options. On port-In, the Donor company provides, free balance and on-net free minutes. Service handled by Pakistan MNP Database (Guarantee) Limited[16]
Singapore	2008.06.13			Customers are not able to port between prepay and post pay options. Vendor for database installation is Syniverse Technologies	[17]
Taiwan	2005.10.??
Thailand	2010.12.15	3	THB 99	Number Portability Clearinghouse service is handled by Telcordia Technologies. 3 days can be just working days.

Europe

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Albania	2011.??.??	3	Free	Agreement signed on 22-Dec-2010 between AKEP (Authority of Electronic and Postal Communications) and the service handling company "INFOSOFT SYSTEMS sh.a." in partnership with UTI Romania. Service implemented starting with May, 2011.	[18]
Austria	2004.10.16	3	EUR 19		[19]
Belgium	2002.10.01	2	Free	The central solution CRDC has been re-implemented several times. First time it was implemented by Telcordia Technologies US, second time by Cap Gemini Sweden and Belgium, third time by Porthus Belgium. Access to DB: setup fee : €11 000, annual fee: € 3000.
Bulgaria	2008.04.11		EUR 2.56
Croatia	2006.10.01	5		5 days is maximum possible period necessary for porting a number. Service handled by HAKOM.
Cyprus	2004.07.??	4	Free		[20]
Czech Republic	2006.01.15				[21]
Denmark	2001.07.??	1-30	DKK 0-29	The central solutions is called OCH - Operators Clearing House	[22][23][24]
Estonia	2005.01.01	7	Free	Service handled by Infozillion.	[25][26]
Finland	2003.07.25	5	Free	Handled by the company Numpac	[27]
France	2003.06.30	3	Free	On the 7th of November 2011, the period decreases from 10 days to 3 working days maximum.
Georgia	2011.02.15	2-3	Free		[28][29]
Germany	2002.11.01	6-8	EUR 25	The average price charged is about € 25. The exact amount depends on the old provider. A price limit of € 30.72 was set by the Bundesnetzagentur.	[30][31]
Greece	2003.09.??	1-3	Free	Service handled by Telcordia Technologies	[32]
Hungary	2004.05.01	8	Free
Iceland	2004.10.01	10	Free	10 days is maximum possible period. Service handled by Telcordia Technologies
Ireland	2003.07.25	0	Free
Italy	2002.04.01	3	Free		[33]
Latvia	2007.??.??	5	Free		[34]
Lithuania	2004.01.01	1	Free	Service handled by Infozillion. MNP procedure takes 1–24 hours.
Luxembourg	2005.02.01	1		Managed by the G.I.E Telcom E.I.G. operator group and developed, installed and operated by Systor Trondheim AS.
Macedonia	2008.09.01	1-9	MKD 0-236	The reference database was developed, installed and is presently operated by Seavus Group.	[35][36]
Malta	2005.07.31	0	Free	4 hours is a period necessary to port a number.	[37]
Netherlands	1997.08.01	3	EUR 0-9	Service handled by Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Authoriteit aka. Opta. Opta:[38] EEC report with incorrect date:[39]	[40]
Norway	2001.04.01	14	NOK 0 - 200	Administrated by the National Reference Database (NRDB). The reference database was developed, installed and is presently operated by Systor Trondheim AS.
Poland	2006.02.??		Free	To be administrated by the National Central Database (PLI-CBD) run by Office of Electronic Communications (UKE). 30-day max porting time is to be reduced to 1 day.
Portugal	2002.01.01	5-10		Operated by Portabil S.A. Solution implemented by Systor Trondheim AS of Norway.
Romania	2008.10.21	10	Free	Developed by UTI Systems based on the Porthus implementation	[41][42]
Serbia	2011.07.01	4	RSD 0-1	Maximum possible period necessary for porting a number is 2+2 working days. MTS charge for this service 1 RSD, while it's free if you port your number to Telenor or Vip mobile.	[43]
Slovakia	2006.??.??	5	EUR 0-6.68	From 2009 porting time decreased from 12 to 5 days. Implemented by Siemens, decentralised solution (No CRDB is required).	[44][45][46]
Slovenia	2005.12.31	5	EUR 5	5 EUR is a maximum possible price
Spain	2000.10.??	5-7	Free		[47]
Sweden	2001.09.01	21	Free	The largest operators formed independent company, SNPAC AB, to procure central database (CRDB) solution. Implementation of CRDB is carried out by Cap Gemini & Oracle.
Switzerland	2000.03.??	5
Turkey	2008.11.09	6	Free	AVEA and Vodafone hired Gantek to implement central database (CRDB) solution and donated it to Turkish Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Number Portability Clearinghouse service handled by Telcordia Technologies
United Kingdom	1999.01.??	1-3	Free	Telecommunications service is regulated in the UK by Ofcom. On 25 July 2003, Ofcom introduced the General Conditions of Entitlement which apply to all communications networks and service providers in the UK. Time to port is 1 working day.	[48]

Middle East and Africa

Country	Implementation date yyyy.mm.dd	Time to port days	Price	Short notes	References
Bahrain	2011.07.03			Implemented by Systor Intereurope Systems.	[49]
Egypt	2008.04.??		to vodafone free	NPC serves the centralized administrative and provisioning role of MNP. Number Portability Clearhouse is handled by Telcordia Technologies, where Giza Systems is the system integrator.
Ghana	2011.07.07	1	Free	Porting Access bv of the Netherlands (commonly known as PortingXS) along with their local partner, CIS Ghana Limited are handling the central equipment for MNP in Ghana.	[50][51]
Israel	2007.12.03	3–4 hours	Free	Service includes landline as well as mobile numbers. Additional restrictions may apply to "kosher" numbers.	[52]
Jordan	2010.06.01	1	JOD 7	Service is not implemented, but is still planned. TRC started the process in 2005 and released the official bid to implement and operate MNP during September 2009.	[53]
Kenya	2011.04.01	1	KES 200	The Communications Commissions of Kenya through and with Porting Access Kenya committed to roll out MNP for the four Mobile Operators in the Country.	[54]
Kuwait	2010.12.31?			The Minister of Telecommunications has stated that the service should be available before the end of 2010. However a number of delays have been reported in the media.
Morocco	2006?			implemented MNP in Morocco since 2006 but the impact is very small, mainly because 94% of subscribers are prepaid and yearly churn was before MNP around 34%. Now we still are at same level of churn coming mainly from prepaid. Post-paid subscribers are very conservative.
Nigeria	2007.??.??
Oman	2006.08.26			Implemented as a decentralized solution by Porthus for Nawras, and by Gulf Business Machines/Telcordia for Oman Mobile.
Saudi Arabia	2006.07.08			Managed by the Centralized Clearinghouse Approach, through the NPC (Number Portability Clearinghouse), a product of Telcordia Technologies. The implementer and system integrator is Giza Arabia.
South Africa	2006.11.10	1-2 [55]		The three operators, Vodacom SA, MTN SA, and Cell C, formed an independent company for the implementation and management of the central solution. After delays, the implementation of this solution was awarded to local company Saab Grintek teamed up with Telcordia Technologies.
United Arab Emirates	2011?			reported in the media that from middle 2011 UAE has MNP.

See also

• Local number portability

References

1. ^ Brazil
2. ^ Colombia
3. ^ Dominican Republic
4. ^ Mexico
5. ^ Australia
6. ^ New Zealand 1
7. ^ New Zealand 2
8. ^ Hong Kong
9. ^ Pan-India mobile number portability from Jan 20
10. ^ Mobile number portability: Pan-India rollout today
11. ^ Mobile number portability a reality now
12. ^ Maxis Telecommunication MNP FAQ
13. ^ Celcom Telecommunication MNP FAQ
14. ^ Switch to DiGi FAQ
15. ^ MNP Malaysia-launched Nationwide in October
16. ^ http://pmdpk.com
17. ^ It’s confirmed – Singapore has incomplete number portability
18. ^ Balkanweb News Agency
19. ^ [1]
20. ^ [2]
21. ^ Czech Republic
22. ^ Nummerflytning - Telia
23. ^ [3]
24. ^ [4]
25. ^ [5]
26. ^ [6]
27. ^ Suomen numerot NUMPAC Oy: Numpac in English
28. ^ [7]
29. ^ [8]
30. ^ Germany
31. ^ MNP Germany
32. ^ [9]
33. ^ [10]
34. ^ [11]
35. ^ [12]
36. ^ [13]
37. ^ [14]
38. ^ [15]
39. ^ EEC report MNP in Europe
40. ^ [16]
41. ^ Romania
42. ^ [17]
43. ^ Serbia
44. ^ [18]
45. ^ [19]
46. ^ [20]
47. ^ [21]
48. ^ United Kingdom - Phone Number Portability
49. ^ Bahrain ushers in mobile number portability
50. ^ Ghana National Communications Autnority
51. ^ [22]
52. ^ Phone Number Portability and Its Implementation in Telephone Networks in Israel – FAQ. Israel Ministry of Communications (Hebrew)
53. ^ Jordan
54. ^ [23]
55. ^ http://www.mtn.co.za/mtnservices/mobilenumberportability/pages/default.aspx

External links

• Ofcom Mobile Number Portability review of the porting process
• Guide to Mobile Number Portability in the United Kingdom
• Guide to Mobile Number Portability in India